I'd forgotten all about Nick O' Tine (clever name, eh?): "Hey kids - have one of THESE and grow up fast! Ha ha ha ha ha!!"
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-balloon-1981-online
^ Not an actual, real public information film. ^
I think it was. People just didn't listen
In high school we were shown two public information films, one on the horrors of unsafe driving which showed the results of fatal car accidents in full colour. There were victims in situ, victims in the morgue as well as an autopsy. One classmate fainted and another two ran from the room crying and trying to hold back their vomit.
Surviving the gory highway safety instruction-by-terror films was a rite of passage in American high schools of the Sixties.
We also had a film - maybe that one - along the same lines, in the context of a presentation by a SPUC spokeswoman. It was extremely graphic, especially in those days, when gory surgical operations were not featured daily on television. Televison itself was mainly b & w.
All very odd wasn't it? It was considered compulsory viewing for us, although you could be excused if you had a note from your parents. I don't recall anyone that did, however I do remember much weeping from some of the girls, probably some of the boys too as it was quite traumatizing, especially with the Sister reminding my female classmates that they ensured instant excommunication if they were to travel down that road.We also had a film - maybe that one - along the same lines, in the context of a presentation by a SPUC spokeswoman. It was extremely graphic, especially in those days, when gory surgical operations were not featured daily on television. Televison itself was mainly b & w.
I do remember that one lad, at least, left the lecture theatre in some distress. He was a big lad and a bit of a bully; rumour had it that he was the only one in the room at all likely to have caused an unwanted pregnancy. The teachers were Christian Brothers, so I think they were in the clear for that!
Accustomed as I was to debates, I tried to raise some sort of objection to the emotive and unbalanced viewpoint we had been given but this was no debate!
Said as Mytho ran down a corridor carrying scissors, before thrusting them into a plug socket. While lighting a Woodbine.
Sure, I was always doing that. It's what made me the man I am.
Me neither, not at school. Showing graphic film of abortions & car crashes to children strikes me as borderline abuse.
Some time just after the AIDS warnings, there was a change in direction and sheer stark terror stopped being the language of PIFs, for better or worse. Now, of course, the COI no longer exists to make them.
Since the video is blocked due to its content, can I just ask whether that is the one with the kids holding a Sports Day on the railway line, and the last event is where they run into the tunnel, to be brought out on stretchers covered in red blankets? Because if so, I've had bits of that film in my head since about 1980 - saw it at home, and it has stuck with me FOR EVER...
Found it @bugmum
Oh yes, that's the one. We'd just moved away from near a railway line to a village with no train links for a good 10 miles, but that would have stopped me ever doing anything stupid.
